Q&A with Evan Thomas

Evan Thomas talked about Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World, his narrative of the…
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Evan Thomas talked about Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World, his narrative of the president’s 1953-1961 term in office. In the book he suggested that President Eisenhower used the threat of nuclear war to prevent open conflict with the Soviet Union while never fully revealing just how far he was willing to go in deploying the weapons. He also detailed the personal aspects of Eisenhower and his presidency, including his relationship with his wife Mamie, his temper and health problems, and the 800 rounds of golf he played during his presidency. Topics included his relations with his contemporaries, including Central Intelligence Agency Director Allen Dulles, General Curtis LeMay, who pushed for a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviets, and members of the press such as leading critic Joseph Alsop. Video clips were shown of Eisenhower home movies and his farewell address. Mr. Thomas also reacted to clips of previous appearances on C-SPAN. close

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*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.